Inflammation and behavioral symptoms in preoperational glioma patients: Is depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment related to markers of systemic inflammation?

PURPOSE: Behavioral symptoms, including depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment, are common clinical symptoms of patients with glioma. However, the mechanisms underlying the behavioral symptoms of glioma patients remain unclear. In this study, we explore the correlation between markers of systemic inflammation and preoperational behavioral symptoms in glioma patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients (n = 71) who had recently undertaken imaging (i.e., CT, MRI) for suspected glioma had a face‐to‐face interview, completed self‐report scales, and provided blood samples. Furthermore, we tested blood samples by a protein chip to select differential inflammatory cytokines and further confirm such differences using liquid‐phase chip technology. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment in glioma patients prior to surgery in this study was 53.5%, 70.4%, and 32.4%, respectively. The increased levels of IFN‐γ were positively correlated with clinical symptoms of depression in the glioma patients. Moreover, increased IL‐2 levels were negatively associated with anxiety symptoms (p = .00) and positively correlated with cognitive impairment in glioma patients. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that systemic inflammation is associated with behavioral symptoms in glioma patients. This provides further evidence of the contribution of inflammatory markers to psychological symptoms in the context of physical conditions and lays the foundation for the development of further treatments of the behavioral symptoms in glioma patients.